The annual 8 round Swiss competition will run from 6th to 27th June 2017.
Two Rapid play games per night through June with a time control of 40mins per player.
A maximum of 2 half point byes may be awarded to absent players.
A full point bye will be given to non-paired players and count as a played game.
If leaders are tied, a winner will be decided by the results of direct encounters.
If that does not provide a winner the trophy will be shared.
From this season, results from the shield no longer count towards the club ladder.
The outright winner will be awarded the Peter Keffler Shield and be “Club Champion”.
An Improver shield will be awarded for the best player performance relative to grade.
Players need 6 played games to qualify. No player can win both trophies.
Follow progress here.

This is an 8 round Swiss competition held from 17th May to 14th June (excl. 7th Jun).
Two Rapid play games per night, with a time control of 40mins per player.
A maximum of 4 half point byes may be given to absent players.
A full point bye will be given to non-paired players and count as a played game.
5 played games are needed to qualify.

The outright winner will be awarded the Peter Keffler Shield and be “Club Champion”.
Another shield will be awarded to the best improver, based on performance in excess of grade during the competition. No player can win both trophies.

Competition results will also count towards the club ladder (ends 28th June).
Eight games throughout the season are needed in the ladder to qualify.
The ladder winner is awarded the Bullwinkle trophy board.

This season’s 9 round Swiss is being held from 19th May to 16th June.
As last season, this is no longer handicapped and the award of the shield will again be based on performance in excess of grade. Time controls are 40 minutes per player.
A ½ point bye may be given to absent players, to a maximum of 5.
A full point bye will be given to non-paired players and count as a played game.
5 played games are needed to qualify.

It is Peter’s 90th birthday this week and members of Clacton chess club organised a birthday card and celebratory cake to mark the occasion.

The cake design shows a spectacular Queen sacrifice end position from one of Peter’s many victories. Of the many games published during his long chess career this one typifies his style of play, which was never dull. Rather than slog out a slight advantage, he would often find ways to trade in material for a quick mate. This game is dated ‘c1970’, where Peter played Black in a Two Knights Defence against Niemand which lasted only 15 moves! Despite the game taking place some 43 yeara ago Peter instantly recognised it. You can follow the game here:-

Will be held at Clacton club on 14th May 2013 and the following 2 Tuesday evenings.
This competition known as the Peter Keffler Challenge was introduced on Peter’s 80th birthday and has been contested every year since. All members are encouraged to participate, so please come along for a punctual 7:30pm start when the first pairings of the evening will be made.

N.B. The results of this event will be published here in the club blog pages and NOT in the table of additional member games at necl.org.uk/Clacton. Due to the handicap nature of this event, these games do not qualify for grading.

StructureJohn Lambert recently emailed out an outline structure summarised in the extract below.:-

The event will be the usual handicap with 80 minutes being split between the two players in the ratio of their Jan 2013 standard play grades, the higher graded person receiving the lesser time. All players graded below 99 will be adjudged as having a grade of 60 for this event. ( eg if Phil 160 was paired with Alan 60 then Alan would have 58mins and Phil 22mins).There will be 6 rounds using the Swiss method of pairing. If a player is unable to attend all three days he will be able to take a maximum of two half point byes but must state these at the outset. A player attending but not paired due to an uneven number of players will receive a full one point bye.
Ties will be decided by playoff in the following week with 40 minute game(s) and times split by grade, but a 4-way tie tie will result in a random draw for semi-final/final on a knockout basis.Players in each playoff game will toss for colours.

Pairings and TimingsJohn again volunteered me+laptop for this, so I’ll be using JaVaFo pairing engine, Dutch variant (see here, section C04) – or John will use paper and pencil if we get a power cut!
The table of timings is shown below. Click on the image for a larger/clearer view.
Your clock time in minutes is found along ‘your row’ under the column corresponding to your opponents seed number. Your opponents clock time is found along ‘their row’ under the column corresponding to your number.

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Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen joined Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi in the lead on 4 points after they both won in the sixth round of the Tata Steel Masters. Carlsen won a difficult endgame late on against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Although equal the position was very unbalanced and it seems 44...h5? (44...e3) was the losing […]

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Leader Ian Nepomniachtchi earned a comfortable draw with black against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Round 4 of the Tata Steel Masters and kept the lead with 3 points. This allowed Anish Giri and Santosh Gujrathi Vidit to move within half a point in a four way tie for second place with Ding Liren and Viswanathan Anand. […]

Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated a struggling Vladimir Kramnik in the third round of the Tata Steel Masters tournament to lead the tournament alone on 2.5/3. This is also Nepomniachtchi's third classical win in a row against Kramnik. Ding Liren also scored his first win beating Jorden van Foreest and Jan-Krzysztof Duda beat Vladimir Fedoseev. Shankland-Anand, Radjabov-Rapport […]

FIDE is pleased to announce the 2019 Grand Prix Series, the qualifier for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. It will be held in cooperation with World Chess in a new format aimed at improving its appeal for spectators and players alike. Each of the top 20 players qualified by rating will take part in 3 out […]

Tournaments • Smooth organization of major FIDE events, including both World Classical Championships (London and Khanty-Mansiysk) • Successful relocation and organization of King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships 2018 in a close partnership with the Saudi Chess Federation and the Russian Chess Federation. New standard of organization and specially devised programs attracted thousands […]

1. As clearly stated in Article 1 of FIDE's statutes, FIDE rejects discriminatory treatment for national, political, racial, social or religious reasons or on account of gender. According to the same statutory provision, FIDE events (competitions, congresses, meetings) may be hosted only by Federations where free access is generally assured to representatives of all Federations. […]

FIDE informs about additional qualification path to the Candidates 2020 - FIDE Grand Swiss. Consequently, FIDE removes one qualification spot from the rating quota and passes it to Grand Swiss qualifier based on the understanding with World Chess. The bids for the event are to be sent before February 9, 2019 to office@fide.com. Rules for […]

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The King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships were held in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 25-31. Daniil Dubov and Ju Wenjun are the World Rapid Chess Champions. Magnus Carlsen and Kateryna Lagno are the World Blitz Champions. Please view the final standings and complete prize fund allocations: PDF | Excel